


Light will guide you home

by Duchessa712



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Brother-Sister Relationships, Character Death, Character Study, F/M, Family, Female Friendship, Friendship, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29841945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duchessa712/pseuds/Duchessa712
Summary: Eight year at Hogwarts.After the battle, after the war, after the deaths.*The air is still with anticipation and memories and even the children, the naive eleven years old who should burst with excitement are silent, looking around for traces of something and finding none.The others envied them - because they find the traces: a web of lines across the walls, crumbles of stone and deafening silence.And memories. So many memories.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes & Elena Gilbert, Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson, Elena Gilbert & Katherine Pierce, Elijah Mikaelson & Klaus Mikaelson & Rebekah Mikaelson, Elijah Mikaelson/Katherine Pierce, Ginny Elena, Hermione Granger/Damon Salvatore, Klaus Mikaelson & Stefan Salvatore, Rebekah Mikaelson/Stefan Salvatore
Kudos: 6





	Light will guide you home

The air is still with anticipation and memories and even the children, the naive eleven years old who should burst with excitement, are silent, looking around for traces of something and finding none.

The others envied them - because they find the traces: a web of lines across the wall, crumbles of stone and a deafening silence.

And memories. So many memories.

*

They are the survivors. They are the good ones. They are the ones who answers question whispered with shiness and trepidation and _oh, why did they returned, why?_

They are the heroes and, still, the children (they are all children compared to them. Maybe is arrogant to speak in this way. Maybe is rude, but it's true) ask always a question before any others:

_Where is Harry Potter?_

Because Harry defeated Voldemort. Harry died and came back. Harry protected them all. Harry won.

Harry is The Boy Who Lived, The Man Who Win - and this makes all the difference in a kid's mind, not that someone died and didn't come back.

(Fred. Colin. Remus. Tonks. Bonnie. Jeremy. Kol. The list is endless). 

_He is not here_. Because he has been smarter than all of them and stayed back with Ron, away from the theater of the tragedy, the playground of ghosts.

And the disappointment on the children's face takes away a bit of their breath - their soul is tucked somewhere beneath their eyes and their heart is already broken and bleeding. They lost people - friends and family and lovers and brothers and sisters and…

(... and they can't break for the delusion of strangers, too).

*

They sleep in the same bed, now, and no one says anything. They are two pieces of a puzzle who don't fit anymore - and still they tried, because they're drowning and they need something.

Once people would have frowned.

Gryffindor and Slytherin are not friends, they're enemies since the beginning of time, since the petty feud between two grown man became the neverending feud between children, a legacy passed on from generation to the other.

Not anymore. Not again.

Now the silver snape and the red lion are just symbol on a uniform and on a wall and no one has enough courage or strength to disagree.

And so, at night, the sisters shared a bed, sleeping in each other's arms, whispering secrets and gifting tears like when they were children - before the war, before Hogwarts, before everything, before their parents' death.

(Sun creeps trough the curtains and spies them and they're always in the same position: Katherine's ears on Elena's heart and Elena's face hidden in Katherine's hair and the arm of one around the body of the other.

They don't left any space - space means void and void means absence and absence means death and death means…).

*

Caroline walks across the corridors with tears shining in her eyes and wand tightly in her hand and Klaus near her, keeping an eye on her.

There is a darkness around her that wasn't there before and is she the one no one stops for questions about a war that is enough far to be considered ended but not enough to be considered boring.

(She looks at him - tired eyes and tired smile and skin too pale - and it seems one of those winter's dawn, when the sun is almost white and it doesn't provide enough warm.

But is there and this must mean something).

"Hello, love" he greats her and she lights up for a moment and entwined their arms and walks with him, ignoring the blatant stares they receive (Slytherin and Hufflepuffle, a combination no one has ever heard about).

She speaks of classes and her mother and Elena and she grimaced slightly when she does because there is another name and she catches it just before it slips.

(Bonnie - her best friend; one of the most talented witch the world had to offer; one of the heroes who died and didn't came back.

Caroline loves her sometimes more than she loves Elena - because Elena has always been something else, with that part of herself so similar to Katherine she tried to suppress.

Or so she thinks. She isn't so sure of the real story between the Gilbert twins, only that they hated each other and then they made peace and now they sleep together every night).

Klaus listens, happy to let her speak, to be with her, to breath in her scent and be lulled by her sweet voice. He takes in her, in that innocence tainted by the horrors of the war, in the light that shines so bright, and memorizes her for the sketch she will find on her pillow.

 _However long it takes_ , he signs, until she will relent, until she will admit her affection.

 _Really?_ she asked the first time and he nods. No declaration or epic jesture. Just a nods and she hugs him and cries in his arms - for what she lost, for what she faced, for what she survived.

*

They sat at the same table and what a strange group they may be.

Gryffindor and Slytherin and Hufflepuffle and Ravenclaw all crowded together, press so hard against each other as if they may break or disappear if just a crack shall appear.

Elijah looks at them all

and thinks of Kol: the younger brother he failed.

and thinks of Jeremy: a child caught in a war that seemed almost a game.

and thinks of Bonnie: the witch who fought valiantly and bravery and died anyway.

and thinks of Fred: a missing piece, a missing half, the specter of a laughter echoing perpetually in the castle, bouncing against its wall.

(Then he looks at those who survived; at Rebekah who has the scared eyes of when she was a child frightened by storms;at Nicklaus who clenched his fist and gazes only at Caroline; at Katherine and Elena with their hands clasped tightly together; at Hermione and the dark circles under her eyes; at Ginny and the shivers that run down her spine.

He doesn't look at himself. He rufuses to see the truth even if he knows it - to acknowledge his failure as a brother and as a friend.

He doesn't speak of his ghosts and his nightmares for they are his burden alone to carry).

They don't speak. They just sit together and sometimes one of the children (the naive, youthful children) comes and asks if they are Harry Potter's friends and if they can please, so, so please, tell him he is their hero and they want to be just like him.

A hero. The hero.

Elijah stays still while the quitenes snaps. Sometimes is Ginny with a sudden movements or Hermione with a too long stare. Sometimes is Nicklaus who bares his teeth as they were fangs or Rebekah narrowing her eyes. Sometimes is Caroline clenching her wand so tight he's almost sure it would break. Sometimes is Elena or Katherine or both moving in perfect sincrony and whispering oh so very sweetly (deathly) to the kids to never speak again of things they don't understand.

Elijah does nothing except watching, keeping them balanced in the thin line between cruelty and protection, between grief and craziness.

He has always been the calm in a storm.

(He would find the poor kid later and give him a smile and an advice that's more an order - to never bother them again or he doesn't know what his friends may do. It's a difficult time, you see, you understand. Stay away and everything will be fine).

*

Nothing is fine.

It's shattered, like the things Rebekah throw on the ground when she's particularly emotional, which means always.

Papers and books and bottle of ink and bottle of perfume and combs and brushes and clothes - all reduced to pieces, useless, pointless.

She finds solace in Stefan and maybe she should be ashamed of herself because he's Elena's boyfriend (or she has finally chose Damon?) but when he kisses her, combing his hands trough her golden locks, caressing her like she's made of crystal, with eyes burning - she forgets the little nuisance of everyday life.

(Stefan is not hers. She's not so stupid to believe it.  
And she isn't Stefan, it doesn't matter what her treacherous heart tells her.

_You give your love like it's nothing, as if you expect to have it handled back when it suits you._

She has denied those words then and she denies them now. Nick can thinks whatever he wants but he can't judge, he doesn't dare to do so.)

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing".

She kisses him and he hugs her - like he doesn't want to let go and Rebekah's heart is pounding and she's sure it's going to explode.

Stefan looks at her, hands in her hair and on her waist, eyes shining with starlight and moon rays and - oh, here it goes again: the girl who loves too easily.

She shuts her eyes and pretends her heart doesn't break when she hears him closing the door behind him while walking out.

("It's not love" she told her brothers when they discovered of this strange relationship.

"What is it, then?" Nik asked, no, demanded, and she didn't know if he wanted to know on her behalf or Stefan's; for who he was more concerned: his little sister or his old friend.

"It's survival" she answered. It's knowing you're alive and not alone)

(Kol ghost is always a lingering presence)

*

They aren't alright. They are kept together by tape and glue and sometimes Damon asks himself where he fit in the strange circle his brother is part of.

He isn't their friend. He was Bonnie friend and he mistreated Caroline and there is that thing with Katherine during her third year and Elena.

(There is Elena who brushes his hand in corridors but doesn't look at him; who claims to love his brother but doesn't look for him anymore; who told him he's a good person but when he's near clasps her sister's hand so tight he's sure she wants them to become one).

But he orbits around them anyway, keeping an eye on Stefan and his girl(s) and waiting for everything to implode and explode and leave only debris and dust.

Hermione is his companion, now that her two best friends diserted her, preferring a career and a home free of ghosts and Voldemort (as much as a thing like that it's possible). She's always in the library, tons of books around her and he's tempted to ask her what she's looking for now that they don't have to search for anything anymore, but he never does and she never speaks even if he believes she's aware of his presence.

(Bonnie did the same things. The first times she looked at him, more surprised than bothered, but then she simply accepted his existence and didn't even look at him anymore.

He misses her more than he tought possible).

Once he finds her crying.

"It's all useless" she whispered. "All this knowledge and so many death".

Her eyes are like glass reflecting the sun and the torment that keeps her awake at night - the ghosts of those who didn't return, of friends and enemies that became shadows and memories.

"This knowledge prevented even more death" he says, voice too loud for the deafening silence of the room.

"You prevented even more death".

She shrugs and attempts a smile - out of gratefulness and loneliness - and he takes her hand, dragging her out of in the park.

It's snowing and it's cold but…

"Feel" he whispers.

"Feel and don't think".

Feel and be grateful and be proud and be courageous because you survived to tell the tale and keep alive the memories and because of this you can break but are not allow to give up.

Her laughter is contagious and crystal, like a thousand of ringing bells.

(Bonnie smiles - or he thinks she would have.

She would have been happy and proud of him.

He has no intention of failing her).

*

There are memories. So many memories. They need to learn to treasure them.

It's easier said than done.


End file.
